Nintendo is about to take a big leap – either off a cliff, or down a pipe into a new, mobile world – as it introduces its first new console in six years.
Anyone who’s ever loved Mario should keep an eye on Nintendo Thursday evening as the company introduces the Switch, designed to move with players at home or on-the-go. Gamers can plug the Switch into their televisions to play on the big screen. But they can also opt to detach a smaller screen embedded in the console for play outside. The Switch includes a set of modular controllers with panels that snap onto the mobile screen.
Nintendo will reveal all about its new console in a Tokyo event, which will be livestreamed online Thursday night, starting at 11 p.m. ET. The company’s fans have, for months, expressed their hope on social media that this new console can meet their growing mobile needs – and help the beloved firm recover from its disappointing 2012 Wii U console.
That console also had a two-screen layout, but it was clunky and created playability challenges not even Nintendo could conquer. Without killer games or any other compelling reason to buy a Wii U, gamers didn’t pick it up, and Nintendo’s profits and credibility took a serious dive. The Switch seems to build off the idea of the two-screened Wii U, but tries to avoid its pitfalls with a more practical, consumer-friendly idea of the second screen’s function: a way to take your games with you.
That concept is a big shift for Nintendo. It shrugged off pleas from analysts and fans to embrace mobile gaming for years, even as players flocked to convenient casual gaming on smartphones. Now, Nintendo is working to prove itself to the many fans who’ve written it off as a dying company that’s incapable of doing anything besides capitalizing on nostalgia. (That business tactic does, after all, do well for the company, which sold out an updated version of its Nintendo Entertainment System last year.)
Despite a clearer vision of a console for a new age of gaming, Nintendo hasn’t offered many details about the Switch since an October preview. Prospective buyers still have more questions than answers. It’s not clear, for example, whether the console needs a cellular data connection or requires a WiFi connection. Nintendo hasn’t said what its storage capacity or battery life are. It’s also still a mystery how good its graphics are going to be. Nintendo has shown the portable screen playing older but still graphics-intensive titles, such as 2011’s Skyrim, but not offered any specifics. It’s also not even clear whether the portable version of the console has a touch screen.
And then there’s the price – a tricky one for Nintendo to navigate on a large and small scale; its decision to sell its latest Mario app for $10 rather than using micro-transactions upset critics and fans. Most expect the Switch to be around $250, which would be significantly cheaper than its prime competitors from Sony and Microsoft and even than most smartphones.
A price advantage could help Nintendo, which has never recaptured the blockbuster success of 2006’s motion-controlled Wii – despite repeatedly making games starring its bankable stable of beloved characters. Still, Nintendo faces a mobile gaming space dominated by smartphones, and a consumer market that’s moved away from single-use devices.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post ยท Hayley Tsukayama / Featured Image via Facebook
